Slim's Offer
by Mr. Kix
Summary: Slim wants out, and Ratchet tries to help him. But he ends up meeting old friends...and enemies. Chapter 1 seems to have gone wrong, please try read as best you can XD
1. Slim Needs Help

I don't own Ratchet, Clank, or any other, er, things in the story. Or

the sequel. Now I don't need to say it every chapter. Remember this

before you sue me.

This is my first fanfic, so don't hurt me, will ya? Ratchet will do that

for me. DONK Ow! Thanks. OK, this is just a Ratchet fic I threw together

Enjoy! I hope u do (Zodiac opens) or you won't live to regret it.

JUST JOKING!

Slim's Offer(This takes place directly after UYA)

Chapter 1 Slim Needs Help

Ratchet woke up. It was 2 in the afternoon and he had overslept. It

wasn't that that woke him up though. He heard a ship set down in the

hangar. He got up quietly as not to wake Sasha. Too late.

"Uh, Ratchet, what time is it?"

"Hate to say this, but we overslept. It's 2pm."

"WHAT?!" Sasha jumped out of bed and in a flash, she was in her tight

commander suit.

"Take care, hotshot, I gotta go" she kissed him for probably more than

the time she should waste and dashed out. Ratchet's eyes followed her,

marveling at her speed.

Ratchet ran out to the hangar and gaped at the thing coming out of the

landed ship.

A huge steel cylinder with feet was walking towards him. It settled

down in front of Ratchet and said something that made him smile.

"My best customer. Just who I wanted to see."

"Well,well,well. If it isn't Slim Cogni..."

BONK! The cylinder crashed on top of Ratchet before the sentence was

finished. "HUSH! Not so loud. I don't sell away from the cops for any

old reason, you know."

"Sorry about that. So why did you..."

He broke off again to chase after the cylinder, since it had lost

control after falling on Ratchet and started rolling away. As Ratchet

ran after Slim, everyone stared at him and wondered if this guy was a

hero after all.

"So Slim," he said after catching him, "what are you doing here? You

can't set up shop here, mate."

"No,no, I didn't come for that. You see, I have a job for you"

"What job? I haven't got anything to sell, so..."

"No, a proper job. You will get your share from this though, don't worry about that."

"Erm... shoot. What is it?"

"That's the spirit! You see, for 14 years I have been in here and the

handle is rusted. Real hard. There's no way out. Can you help me out?"

"Uh, sure."

"Great. Here's what to do..."

"You're freeing Slim Cognito from his cylinder?" Clank and Sasha said

together.

"Yes. Listen, he's helped me more with weaponry and ship upgrades than

any other guy in the galaxy. Apart from bolts and raratanium, perhaps

I could do him a favor back."

"(sigh) Ratchet you can be so kind and gentle sometimes..."

Clank looked away as they kissed. Of course, not having a relationship

himself, he would do this.

When they broke apart, she said, "Why can't you just bash it open?"

"Because Slim says that thing is made out of Carbonox. I won't be able

to get through it."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Al's brother, you remember him Clank, on Pokitaru (the guy had got

Clank his thruster-pack) was the one who made the cylinder for Slim. I

am gonna go there and bring him back to the Pheonix. Apparently, only

he can take it apart.

"Ok, but be careful in that section of the galaxy."

"Why?"

"Uh... it's nothing. I'm just worried about my little hotshot."

After the plan, Ratchet and Sasha dispersed to do their own thing. Sasha

had to make contact with the rangers after the assault on Marcadia

(in truth, they had run off and gone to a pub somewhere so the GP sent his best men instead)

and Ratchet was going to Pokitaru.

On the way, he began to think. What did Sasha mean by that? Was the

planet in danger? Was someone after Ratchet? He forgot all about it

when a huge missile flew just past his wing.

"Clank, remain locked on to the co-ordinates"

"Got it!"

A fleet of 20 blargian starfighters were closing in. Ratchet fired up his laser blasters and let

rip.

"WHOOHOO!"he cried has he downed 12 ships in one volley of shots. What he didn't see was the

reinforcements behind him. Still not knowing, he fired a nuke at an asteroid and turned up his

shields to full power. The blast of the nuke knocked Ratchet around a bit but the rest of the

fleet and a few of the reinforcements were disintegrated instantly. Ratchet saw a piece of a ship

fly past (a tiny bit mind) and turned round. A fully fledged fleet greeted him warmly. Warmly

being lots of lasers in the hull.

Ratchet sped down to Pokitaru at blistering speeds. Directly inside the atmosphere, Ratchet

jumped out and snapped Clank onto his back. He fell for 2 minutes (thats a lot while falling)

dodging missile after missile launched at him. The commander of the fleet looked at his fellow

Blargians on the vid-screen.

"(In blargian) There's no way he could have survived that fall. Move to Snivelak and we'll talk

more there."

On Pokitaru, Ratchet drifted down slowly, Clank bearing his usual heli-pack gear.He landed

silently, crouched behind an overgrown mushroom and looked around. From what he saw, he feared

for Al's brothers life.

It was choas. Tourists were running around scared, missiles, explosions, laser fire, and zapping

noises. Ratchet moved forward slowly, heavy lancer at the ready. Out of nowhere, a blargian jumped in front of him and brandished his plasma...sword?

BANG! CLICKCLICK!

Ratchet had equipped his blitz gun at lightning speed and 'blitzed' the blargian right between

the eyes.

Another 4 blargians jumped out, carrying plasma storms. Ratchet picked up the plasma sword on

the floor.

SQUELCH! CLANG! CRUNCH! SQUISH! CRACK!

The blargians lay dead on the floor, blue-coloured blood everywhere.

Ratchet put the sword in his storage glove and used the charge boots to speed past the thugs that

appeared in front of him.

CRUNCH! While speeding, he crashed right into one of the thugs. The thug died instantly, but

Ratchet took a few seconds to continue.

He finally reached the store that the guy owned. He noticed there was some sort of forcefield in

front of the gap into the store.

"DAMN IT!" Ratchet thought to himself and leant on the forcefield in anger. He fell straight

through it. He was relieved to see Al's brother behind the counter. Strangely, he was very jolly.

"Welcome to my robo-shack! We have plenty of merchandise available, especially for you. What

would you like sir?"

Ratchet raised one eyebrow. "Have you noticed there is a battle going on outside?"

"Battle?" The man looked bewildered and looked outside. "There's no battle going on! You

youngsters are so fresh these days!"

"But, there is! You even put up a shield!"

"That was to stop the (mumble) getting in to take me out like the rest of the tourists."

"The WHAT?"

"Yes, we are all angry, but don't beat yourself up kid. So what would you like?"

"Er... got any new pack-upgrades?"

"As a matter of fact, yes!"

"I'll have that then."

"Come here, scrappy crappy dude."

"Hey, wait..."

DRILL! SCREW! SCREECH!

"Clank, you look like a new man!"

"Hehehehehehe."

Clank certainly looked new. His arms were not needed for this pack. His legs emitted a strange

aura. He was floating too!

"Anti-force," the man explained."Activated when an unfriendly force affects you like gravity.

At clank's free will, it will repel this force, allowing you to float, stop directly in your

tracks no matter how fast you are going, stop getting burnt from friction, keeps you upright and,

as an extra bonus, it will work no matter how you are standing. On a ceiling, a wall, it

doesn't matter!"

"Cool! But we already have gravity boots..."

"Yes, but this works on any surface."

"Ah..."

"Ratchet, the reason for coming?"

"Oh yeah, thanks Clank. Ahem, sir will you come with us for a short period of time? We have

something that needs doing."

"Huh? No way!"

"This is serious. Slim needs help."

"Ah, Slim Cognito... why didn't you say so? Let's go!"

"Freeze, fuzzball!"

"Typical..."

Ratchet put his hands up and so did Joe (A/N the guy's real name, albeit not really I think) and Clank.

"I've been waiting a long time for this, fuzzy."

The assailant walked in front of them. Ratchet knew that voice.

END OF CHAPTER

(A/N Cliffhanger! Tell me what you think review please! Don't throw lightning at me. This is my first)

Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	2. The Outsider

(A/N I dont own any characters in this chapter but I wish I did. Oh, **snivel**)

Chapter 2 The Outsider

"Well, well, well. We meet at last, little fuzzball. I've heard of you. You may have heard of me. You may have not. But I assure you, you will know of me."

The voice was familiar, yet distant.

"I...I..." Ratchet was speechless.

The character walked in front of Ratchet. They both smirked when they realised who they were.

Then an orange streak shot around Ratchet's legs. He blasted at it but to no avail. It rested on the assailant's shoulder.

"I should have known, Clank. Jak and Daxter..."

"What's happening, peeps?" Daxter tried to be cool, as usual.

"Well, it's the famous Ratchet at last." Jak and Ratchet shook hands.

"Hey Jak, can you give me a hand? I need to escort this guy to my starship."

"Sure."

The 4 protected Joe's way to the ship with all their might. The blargians had gotten more fierce. They were more ruthless and clever.

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When they finally arrived at the Starship Pheonix, they went to Slim in Ratchet's quarters and got his attention. He had the controller of the VG-9000 stuffed into the canister and was happily playing Robot Rampage. The only way for attention was to spin the canister several times. Afetr the dizziness. He looked up with those strange eyes at Joe and his erm...eyes sparkled if you could see it.

"Joe, get me out of here. That's the least you could do since I gave you so much bolts."

_Is it just me, or has Slim's voice changed slightly? _Ratchet wondered.

"Absolutely. It will take a few days, what with all the things I put on that thing."

"It's only Carbonox!"

"Oh no, my erm... unknown friend. It's Infernite."

"Wha...?"

"Oh, it was pretty cheap 14 years ago. But now it's quality has been discovered and it's worth more than you get in a lifetime."He pointed at Ratchet. This slightly angered him. He swore he say something dark blue shoot out of his finger."

"On to the matter at hand, I didn't know about this until now. I need my tools. Ratchet, you go get them while I undo the first bolt with that spare omniwrench you have on the desk."

"Whatever. But why can't I just undo it?"

"Because I did it up, I can take it down."

"Whatever you say."

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Ratchet came into the room where everyone was to find Sasha and the rest of them eating a spectacular-looking dinner.

"Oi! I don't remember anyone inviting me to dinner!" He joked. Everyone chuckled but stopped abruptly when Ratchet looked dark blue in the face.

END OF CHAPTER

(A/N sorry this chapter is so short. I have work to do and all that. Next chapter is longer. Promise. But for now, review galore please!)


	3. We're not so different after all

(A/N For the last time, no matter how much I wish it changed, I do not own any characters in my fanfics except for the made-up ones)

Chapter 3 We're not so different after all

(Ratchet POV)

I looked at my hands. They were an incredibly dark blue and the colour was pulsing like the rest of the body was. As soon as he thought I would get used to it, my body turned a light shade of blue.

"What the hell is going on?" I yelled.

Daxter looked at Jak.

"Someone's gonna be in trouble."

"Shut up, Dax."

Longer claws than usual and huge fangs spawned in my dark state. When I turned light, they disappeared and I sprouted great angelic wings which looked like connected tentacles. In fact they _were, _and they separated at my will. I looked around. Sasha would change her face. From horror when dark, to a loving gaze when light. Al was punching in buttons on his Pocket PC. Skidd had his 'Whoa, dude' look on his face, Captain Quark was unconscious on the floor smelling of beer, Skrunch was stuffing piles of bananas in his mouth, Helga was staring in awe, Joe was helping Al.

"What? What? What's going on?" Slim's canister was looking the other way.

"AAARRRGGGHHH!" I screamed as dark blue lightning coursed through every inch of my body. Then it all shot outwards and destroyed the lights. I fell to the ground and closed my eyes.

"Ratchet, wake up! Please wake up!"

I opened my eyes slightly to see Sasha bending over me with tears in her eyes. It quickly changed to tears of joy and she hugged me. That made me feel better.

"Ugh, my head..."

"Here, drink up."

I gladly accepted the water given to me and finished it in a second.

"Wha...what happened?"

Al came in to explain.

"You came back with Jak, right? Well, he says you two shook hands back at Pokitaru. That single action must have passed his dark eco and light eco into..."

"Dark what now?"

"Two years ago, he was infected with two things. Dark and Light eco. It makes him change his form depending on how he felt. When he was angry, he would form a dark creature. When trying to perform good deeds, he would turn into an angelic-type creature."

"Wait, wait...I can MUTATE DEPENDING ON MY EMOTION?"

"Natch!"

"This blows."

I looked at Jak. He was looking at the ground.

"Hey, don't get down on yourself, buddy. It wasn't your fault."

"You think?"

"Yeah. You can't think about eco when meeting an old friend again, right?"

Jak grinned. "Thanks, buddy."

"Hey, Sasha. Get me into a training room. I'm gonna see how this thing works."

Everyone grinned. They knew about Jak, so they would know I could control what I do, mutated or not.

Sasha joined in."OK, Ratchet. But don't let your forms get in the way of us."

This time everyone laughed, including me.

I walked into the VR deck so see Jak standing there.

"Wha... but...you were..."

"I slowed down time. I think I can help you control your new power. Come on."

We entered the VR module. I saw thousands of robots coming towards me, armed with R.Y.3.N.Os.

"OH. MY. GOD!"

"Ratchet, focus all your efforts on the space between your hands."

I looked at my hands and imagined a great energy there. To my surprise, it happened. I looked at the robots.

"OK, on the count of three, release the energy. One,two, THREE!"

I let go of the energy. It transformed in a spinning globe of electricity and cut through the robots in an instant.

"YES, YES, YES, THIS ROCKS!"

"Just remember. These robots are very weak. Proper cannon fodder will be much stronger."

"Right."

More robots appeared while I was still in my dark form.

"Right. Jump up and slam the ground. Then jump up and spin."

I did as he said. First the robots went flying to the ground. Then they got zapped into oblivion.

"Last thing, imagine no-one knows you are there."

I thought that no-one could see me. I walked behind Jak quietly and tapped him on the back.

He jumped then turned. "It worked! You're invisible!"

"OK, onto the light form. Imagine you are fighting for the good."

Instantly I transformed into my light form.

"Good. Now, kneel down and clap your hands above you."

When I did it, he seemed to slow down. I walked to the other side of the room and looked closely and saw he was nodding in very slow motion.

Then it went fast again. When he found me I asked, "what the hell happened?"

"You slowed down time. Onto the next thing." He got out a gun and shot me square in the chest.

I fell back and stared at him. "Why?"

"Concentrate! Imagine you have no wounds at all."

Slowly I rose into the air and a bright light shone on me. My laser wound quickly disappeared, along with all the pain."

"WOW."

"Next, imagine no-one can hit you."

A shield formed around me. It seemed solid and moved with me. Jak fired a few round of his shotgun but to no avail.

"Good. Now the very last thing. Imagine you are one with the wind."

My big angelic wings started to flap. I was flying! It was an amazing experience. I felt like I could never be happier.

"That's excellent. That's all you can do."

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Back in the real Phoenix, Sasha grabbed me and kissed me.

"That was pretty impressive, hotshot."

"Thanks. I thought I was gonna kill everyone when I looked like that."

Laughter filled the room.

Sasha went back to her serious tone.

"Ratchet, did Joe tell you anything else other than to get the tools?"

"Yes, he said the blarg were still at large."

Everyone went serious except for Quark, who ran out of the room screaming and got into his ship.

"Did you say the blarg were still at large?"

"Yes. And it gets worse. I suspect an old enemy lives. I think Drek is back."

END OF CHAPTER

(A/N What do you think? Quite a cliffhanger, huh? Please review, review, review! Anyone want me to do more eco action? Or back to classic guns and gore? Please tell me. Also, if anyone wants lemon, TOUGH. I'm always caught doing that kind of thing. I could do references, but nothing more. Well, if you are lucky, I could squeeze in some RatchetXSasha action but only if I get more votes for want than don't want. If anyone wants to give me their own characters to put in the story, get in touch. Be warned, he could just be in for a chapter then get killed off. Perhaps I could be generous and make him/her a main. Just do what you want from I said, OK?)


	4. Resistance

OK lads I've made the next chapter. Please review this one I've done my best to fix the errors people have told me in the past. Tell me if I have improved at all and what you like next. Please keep suggestions pouring in! Although I haven't even had any yet! Anyways, you know the drill. I don't own anything in the story except for any made up characters I may include.

Chapter 4 Resistance

(Just after R&C1, Drek's POV)

I slowly opened my eyes. Everywhere around me I saw wreckage and pieces of my own failed plan. I felt like Plasma was searing through my body, the pain was so great.

I found a spare vial of nanotech in the stash I always kept. I knew the secret to full healing. Many pour it on their wounds. I had a better idea.

I gulped down the whole vial. Instantly I was as good as new.

I pushed away some wreckage blocking my way and found what I was looking for. My radio. I tried to send a signal to the HQ, but the radio was damaged. I would have to stay on the wreck of my homemade planet until I could find a way to repair it and for someone picked up the signal.

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(Back at the phoenix, present time, 3rd person perspective)

"DREK?" Everyone stared at Ratchet in uncertainty and denial.

"Yes, I'm sure he is still alive. Somehow I sense he is around here. A sixth sense if you will."Ratchet's sentence stunned everyone. Around here?

Right on cue, the Phoenix shook and explosions echoed around the room. Everyone got out their weapons and dashed to the strongest sound. Quark had disappeared.

Ratchet called the Galactic Rangers over. "OK, ladies, lets move out!"

The team, led by Ratchet, sped out to the docking bay. As soon as they ran out into the open corridor, fire rained down on them. Or was it on them? They looked around to see over 20 blargians dead on the floor, smoke rising from their blood-coated bodies. They looked at where the lasers came from to see Sasha and the Q-Force brandishing their smoking weapons.

"Oi! Leave some for me!" Jak pushed his way to the front of the group and looked at the bodies. Then he looked at the others. "This isn't all of them you know!"

Sasha looked at Ratchet and said, "He's right. We'd better get moving."

Together they all ran to the docking bay to see what they feared. There were parts of the Rangers everywhere and there were blargians all over the place, on guard for other survivors. Then the battle broke out.

"TAKE COVER!" Ratchet yelled. Everyone dived behind the Rangers dropship, that was on flames at the front. Instantly, carbonox discs flew, lasers flew, bomvs exploded, and many other types of projectile flew.

Ratchet took a chance at a dive and let loose with his N90 Hurricane. Few of the hundreds of blargians fell to the ground, and more took their positions. Al repelled an active Nitro Launcher shell with Ratchet's Omniwrench 8000. It flew straight back to the blargians and imploded.

Jak couldn't tolerate not getting anyone, and took his dark form. He expertly charged up a ball of energy but to his dismay, the blargian captain swatted it away with his plasma sword. Realizing that his power will do no good, he took his light form and went to help the others.

Ratchet saw Jak and kicked himself. He forgot about his power. Just then, a barrage of lasers went straight for him. Ratchet instinctively knelt and clapped his hands. Everything went to all but a standstill. He sidestepped out of the way and moved Sasha away from a bomb next to her feet and threw it back to the blargians. Everything happened all at once. A group of blargians exploded, Ratchet teleported behind the drop ship (to the blargians) and Sasha thanked Ratchet for helping her.

They all worked through the blargian forces and it all came down to the captain. Although somehow, he had managed to shoot the Q-Force enough to knock them out (not fatal, they fell unconscious from the pain).

Ratchet and the blargian captain had ran out of ammo by the end of the conflict. Ratchet couldn't find his Omniwrench and the blargian drew his plasma sword. With no other choice, Ratchet drew his too.

The blargian obviously was an expert judging bythe stance he was in. Ratchet just thought back to his wrench training. Simple, but it could well work.

"Well, look what we have here."

The blargian could speak English. "We have been looking for you, Ratchet. Drek is very interested in you."

"Go to hell, scaly bitch."

Ratchet's insult made no change to the captain's emotion. "Very well."

The captain charged and slammed down his sword to come into contact with Ratchet's. They clashed in line with their heads and then came down to a low lock. They stayed like that for a few seconds, then they repelled away from each other and charged again. Ratchet spun 180 and stabbed at the captain in-between his arm and body. The captain repelled that attack, causing Ratchet to spin again. They both swung forward and locked sabers.

"You're...ugh...not bad." Ratchet used the old taunt maneuver.

"You're pretty good yourself, little fur ball."

Ratchet broke the lock and swung low. The captain(A/N I'll call him Cap from now on) jumped back and stabbed forward. Ratchet swung it out of the way and threw forward with all his strength. It simply went through the air. Cap had disappeared.

"Wha.." Ratchet's question was answered with a hard kick to the crotch. He grabbed his mojo and fell to his knees. Cap materialized in front of Ratchet, a teleporter in his hand.

Ratchet managed, "cheater," before he fell over and groaned.

Cap grinned. "Drek will be pleased to hear about what happened to the famous Ratchet. Hehehe."

Cap's grin turned into a grimace as he saw his stomach with a gaping hole in, glowing with dark blue energy. Ratchet was in his Dark state. But the captain grinned. "You can't defeat me with a blast of eco. HA! The only thing that can defeat me is a lase..."

BLAM! The blargian squadron leader lay on his face, very much dead.

Ratchet looked up to see Jak, holding his Scatter Gun.

"Wow. Thanks Jak. What is that gun? Do you have any other weapons?"

"As a matter of fact, Ratchet, I do. This is a Scatter Gun, much like your Shock Cannon. I have a peacemaker, a blaster, and many others. Sorry mate, but the only way back to the quarters is to fly over the wreckage. See where I'm getting at?"

They both grinned.

"Hello? Hello? HELLO? Anyone here anymore? HELLO? I'm getting cold..."

Everyone had forgotten about Slim. His cries triggered Ratchet's slightly dumbed brain cells back into action.

Ratchet turned to Jak. "Come on, Jak, lets get these guys back to the quarters.

They both took their light form and sprouted their spectacular wings. In turn, they picked up members of the Q-Force and took them back to Ratchet's quarters.

"Am I in heaven?" Sasha asked herself as Ratchet flapped with her in his arms. Ratchet chuckled.

"No, but you're probably close!"

Once they were all back in the quarters, Sasha asked, "What happened?"

"You were all shot and fell unconscious from the pain," Ratchet explained, "I fought the blargian captain in melee combat and Jak saved me by blasting the purple freak into sub-atomic particles!"

Everyone laughed at his explanation.

Ratchet then said something that triggered bigger smiles. "WHO WANTS TO PLAY HALO 76?"

"WHOO!" Everyone cheered and sat down, ready for a good long play to get their minds off things.

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(During time of UYA, Drek's POV)

My radio started beeping. I picked it up and saw that it was a surviving blarg ship. They were celebrating the fact they were still alive. Weird. I turned on the speak option and yelled into the speaker "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"

All the blarg must have jumped 10 feet from that, because I heard a table tip over and plates smash.

"Why didn't you come look for me, you buffoons?"

"Er..." the pilot struggled for words.

"It doesn't matter. Have the remaining blarg brought here to pick me up. I am fed up of eating rats day in, day out."

"But sir, the HQ is destroyed."

I replied, "I'm always one step ahead, idiot. We'll use the old Thugs-4-Less HQ. They've abandoned it. It's in the Bogon galaxy."

"Very well, sir. Do you have a plan at all?"

"Yes I do, fellow blarg, and this time," I rubbed my hands together and frowned, "It's PERSONAL."

END OF CHAPTER

(A/N whoo! I loved doing that chapter. I hope you like reading it. Review time! Stay tuned for more chapters to come)


	5. Bigger fish to fry

I know what you are all thinking. "What's blargian for rush job?" Please, I'm doing my best to keep updating this thing as not to leave you sitting there wondering when I'll ever sign in again. Just review and tell me what you think, OK?

Chapter 5 Bigger fish to fry

"HA! Skidd you suck!"

Sasha had just smacked Skidd in the face with a Shock Cannon. They were playing virtual Ratchet with the rest of the Q-Force.

"But, dude, I, like, totally ran out of ammo, and besides, you..." BLAM! "Aww, not again!"

Ratchet grinned. "Oi, Skidd pay attention next time. I was pointing that gun at your head for 10 seconds before you noticed!"

"VAT? How could I lose against this so-called super-hero?" Helga had been sniped right between the eyes.

"Heh, cause you fell for my sexy virtual Ratchet, silly." Everyone knew he was joking and smiled.

"SHUT UP!" Unexpectedly, this had come from Al. "She's mine!"

Everyone fell to the floor laughing. Except for Skidd. When they all got up they looked at him.

Ratchet yelled at him. "OI! We were busy and you kill our avatars? Cheater..."

"Dude. I needed revenge."

"Whatever."

"IM DONE!" Joe shouted from the other room.

At hearing this, Ratchet turned off the VG-9000 and ran with the rest of the group. What greeted them in the next room was enough to make Ratchet faint.

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"So, you return to me AFTER I make my appearance?!" Drek yelled.

"But sir..." the silhouette replied.

"Enough! You will stay by my side from now on and that's that! UNDERSTOOD?"

"Yes sir, whatever sir."

Drek pressed a button. "Lawrence, escort the visitor back to the lobby."

"WHO?"

Lawrence walked in. "Come on, Nefarious has more visitors anyways."

"Wait, Lawrence. So, you wanna know how I got Nefarious' butler?"

"YES, SIR!"

"Well, near my home planet, I found an asteroid with two bodies. One was Nefarious, the other his butler, Lawrence. I had no use for Nefarious, so I disintegrated him. Lawrence, however, was a different story."

"You mean you wanted him for your own use?"

"At last, you are correct for once. Yes, I wanted the butler since the evil overlord always has a servant doing the real dirty work. That would be me of course. I reprogrammed him to work for me, then set up HQ on Snivelak."

"Look, no offense, but your plan didn't work last time. You can't expect it to work now."

"I have no interest in cash anymore, you moron. I've made a new plan. One far greater and...," he rubbed his hands together, "...satisfying."

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Slim looked completely unsuited to his voice. He was a lombax, but he was completely grey, not from aging it seems. He had a storage glove, which was used for merchandise. His fur was very rugged and now it was fully firm. It didn't look like it could be flattened out. His eyes were a very dark blue and his muscles were very toned. He must have worked out or eaten healthy in the canister. He was very dirty, he had an Omniwrench himself, and he had Carbonox armor on. He wasn't wearing the helmet for it.

"My god, Slim, you looks are quite, um... unexpected..."

"I know, Ratchet, I have that effect on people."

Sasha looked confused. "But, what about the eyes? They look different."

Ratchet rolled his eyes at this. "Sasha, think. Those were mechanical eyes obviously."

Slim grinned. "You read my mind."

Suddenly Ratchet turned very serious. "I know for sure Drek is back. Probably more powerful than ever."

Sasha raised an eyebrow."Why do you think he's more powerful than ever?"

"You know how it is with evildoers. They return more powerful than you could imagine, then get beaten again. How ironic."

"Yeah I suppose." Sasha thought very weird about this. "OK, got any leads?"

"I have." Everyone stared at Slim. "I was his friend until he went power-hungry. It's true." As people gasped in horror, Ratchet grinned.

"Well, you picked the right side, mate. Any idea where he might be hiding?"

This time Slim was the one to smile. "This cylinder was actually used as a communicator with Drek until I turned to hate him. He's still trying to make contact with me now. All we have to do is wait for him to call, answer, then track him down."

Everyone silently laughed at this impossible idea. "IM SERIOUS!" That shut them up.

Ratchet sighed. "Well, all we gotta do now is wait."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Drek called the character back in. "Well, you moronic green lardball, it's time I give you some real training."

"That's CAPTAIN Quark to you!"

"Do you have any idea who you are talking to?"

"Sorry."

"So, on to the matter at hand, CAPTAIN Quark, what did you dig up?"

"I found that the um...Q-Force are planning to use Slim to get to you."

"Interesting. I was planning to do that myself but he wouldn't listen at all."

Quark slightly twitched at the thought of the Q-Force going against him.

"Quark, we will deal with them, do not worry."

"Wha... how?"

"I'll explain later. Right now, I need you to go back to the er...Phoenix, was it?... and see what else you can get out of them."

Quark grinned. "This is gonna be fun."

END OF CHAPTER

(Cliffy! Thanks everyone who has stayed with me. I'll reply to their reviews next chapter.)

You might realize I haven't done much actions with Drek, causing the conversations to go into continuous speech. Sorry, but I don't want to make Drek do too much JUST yet. Just know the conversation alternates except for the part when Quark thinks about the Q-Force. Hope you know what I mean. See ya next chapter!


	6. Undercover well sort of

OK, time to follow others and respond to reviews! Thanks to the 2 watching this space (but only 1 alert ah well!)

Padlock91613 or whatever hes called: Thanks for staying with me and cheers with the advice and for spotting problems. 'preshated!

Chaos Wielder: Thanks for taking an interest. I don't intend to take the Ratchet and Sasha thing too far anyways. Unless you reviewers reeeeeeeeeally want me to. Then I might.

Something strange happened in the last chapter. There were no &s when scenes shifted. Sorry about that. Something went wrong with open office. If the &s work this time tell me I can't be bothered to read my own story init I'll be too busy working on the next chapters anyway XD.

**Chapter 6 Undercover...sort of**

Quark arrived back at the Phoenix. He got out, walked into Ratchet's quarters and sat down to play a good long session of HALO 76 EVASION EXPANSION PACK. He could think about his plan in the loading times.

Slim walked into the room. "Hi, Quark."

Quark screamed and ran over to him. "Ratchet, what's happened to you?!(he was obviously trying to be innocent)Did you get shot? Were you permanently mutated? SAY SOMETHING RATCHET!"

"I'm Slim, you latex-wearing buffoon!"

Quark stared. "Uh,duh...hehe...I...um...I knew that all along! I just...er...wanted to..."

"It's OK, Quark," Ratchet said as he entered, "it's alright, we all know you're an absolute boffin like Al."

Everyone walked in and laughed when they heard this.

"Hey, Quark!" Slim exclaimed, "let's play multi-player with the rest of you lot!"

Everyone decided against it and went to get a slice of meatloaf.

"I forgot it's meatloaf day!" Quark jumped out of his seat and used his charge boots equipped by Drek to zoom out. Of course the place isn't that big, and Slim heard a distant skid, crash, scream. He rolled his eyes and sat down to play the campaign of TIME CAPSULE CRISIS.

"What kind of question is that? I thought you were scared of getting into danger!" Ratchet asked, bewildered.

"NO!" Quark exclaimed, making a mess-up of an information-grabbing conversation.

"Well, what is it then?"

"You know, Ratchet, you know I used to work for this guy. But now, I need my revenge for the way he treated me."

"ooook, but how?"

"I was wondering if I could join in on the plan."

"WHAT?! I mean, welcome aboard, Quark!"

Quark started to think. How will he get more out of this place. Then something snapped into place for the first time in his life (A/N had to do that insult XD)

Skidd grinned. "Sure, I'll tell ya anything, Quark-dude. Anything!"

Perfect, Quark thought. "Great! How are we gonna defeat Drek? Do you know?"

Skidd thought for a moment. "Well...you know how we are gonna do it. But I think we are gonna, like, ambush him, and stuff. Like, dude, I think we might even snipe the guy up the nostrils!"

"Wha...?"

"Oh, that means, shoot him from very far in the head."

"Ah..."

Quark knew that sniping would be a good choice against Drek, but...ambush? That was impossible! The whole place was guarded!

"How are you gonna ambush him? That place is gonna be really heavily guarded I bet..." Quark tried to suppress the grin appearing under his fake bewildered look.

"Well, I think this might, like, happen..."

Quark sat down in his quarters.

"What did you find out?" crackled out of his radio.

"They are going to ambush with missiles...I think..."

"What did I tell you about this?! I do the thinking, you do...er...other stuff...otherwise, good work. I'll set up the missile defenses. For now, come back and we will sort it out from there."

"Yes sir!" Quark turned to see a shocked Clank, gaping at him.

"No-one can find out about this, tin-man! You're not going anywhere..."

Clank suddenly found the use of his legs and ran as fast as they could carry him. The door slammed in front of him. He tried to stop, but he smashed right into the door and fell back. The impact had disabled him and he wouldn't power up again for a while.

Quark picked the helpless robot up. "No-one will know what happened to us. HA!"

Ha. The keyword. The floor under them opened up except for where Quark stood with Clank in his hand. Everything changed size accordingly until Quark was sitting in a small ship. The ship fell out into outer space and the boosters kicked in. The ship hovered for a moment to let Quark see a touchable hologram of the room before appear from nowhere. Where Quark found the time to install this, no-one will know. A satellite cloak formed around the ship as it blasted into hyperspace, towards Drek's domain.

END OF CHAPTER

What do you think? Please keep reviews coming! I need the encouragement. Really, I do. Stay tuned, folks!


	7. Prepare for battle and then some

Well, boys, here it is, the next chapter! Thanks for the reviews, keep them coming! I'll reply next chapter but for now, on to the action! Sorry for any word errors and whatnot from previous chapters, I don't have time to look back, what with all the work I have to do.

Chapter 7 Prepare for battle and then some

"Clank? Clank? Come out, this isn't funny, Clank!"

Ratchet had been searching for Clank for 2 hours, but he was nowhere to be found. Then it came to Ratchet to think he had gone somewhere.

He went up to the Bridge and found the ranger captain sitting at the mainframe.

"Ranger! I need records of all the ships leaving the Phoenix, pronto!"

"Roger!"

The ranger sped of following his orders while Ratchet stood there, thinking. Then it really hit him like a slippery fish.

It couldn't be more obvious. Drek is back. Quark used to work for Drek. It was pretty obvious that he would intimidate Quark to join him again. Clank must have heard something between them and Quark must have known this and taken Clank somewhere. Just thinking about it grew Ratchet's claws and sent dark blue electricity everywhere.

He had had enough. He grabbed his storage glove, Infernox armor and eco plating (Jak had given this to him to control his eco power, like stop it passing to another person) and strode up to his ship when he heard faintly "Drek's called!". Upon hearing this, he ran back to the quarters to find Slim staring at Drek.

Drek smiled. "So, you finally answered my calls..."

Slim grinned. "Yes, I think I better give you another chance."

This time Drek grinned even further up to his ears. "Thank you. I think you will find my ways are more gaining."

Slim tried to keep up his grin. "Yes, I see now what you can do. Maybe we can meet up. Where are you now?"

"I am at the old Thugs-4-Less HQ on Snivelak. It is our new HQ from now on."

Slim kept back a more devious grin as he said, "Sure. I'll meet you there."

The cylinder's communicator cut the transmission.

Slim turned to Ratchet and let loose a well-deserved laugh. He thinks.

Ratchet still looked pretty ticked off but he chuckled a bit. Then he turned and walked towards the ship.

"Wait!" Slim ran after him and stopped him.

"I want to come with you."

"Slim, you can't. You have no weapons training..."

"As a matter of fact, I do, Ratchet. I had extensive training with Drek when I liked him."

Ratchet was taken aback by this. "Oh, er, OK. Come on then. No time to lose."

Then he saw Sasha and jumped out. He ran to her and comforted her.

Sasha whispered in his ear, "Be careful out there, hotshot. I've never seen this guy but I'm sure he is powerful. Please watch yourself..."

"Sasha, I'll be fine. Slim's coming. He assured me he is combat-worthy."

"Alright. Take care, hon."

"Ratchet, WAIT!"

Jak had entered the room and ran straight to Ratchet.

"Ratchet, I just heard. I'm going with ya, buddy."

"Guess what Jak's been training with?" Daxter asked.

Ratchet raised his eyebrow. "Er... my weapons?"

"YAHTZEE!"

Ratchet grinned. "That will be of use to us."

Sasha kissed Ratchet then went back to work and probably another speech from the GP about being with Ratchet.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

On the way to Snivelak, Ratchet asked Slim and Jak about tactics.

Slim just replied, "Well I am very accurate with any gun so I think I'll stay back and pick them off with a flux. You simply rock at real combat so you move in while I cover you. Don't worry, I can take care of myself."He flexed his muscles to reassure Ratchet.

Ratchet sighed. "OK, Slim. Let's see whether you are up to the challenge, eh?" They both grinned.

Just as they looked forward they noticed that the bases defenses were up. That was very odd since they were supposed to be disguised as friends. Maybe not Ratchet, but how do they know he was coming?

Then Ratchet realized.

"Slim, we have to turn back. NOW!"

"But, why?"

"Quark has tipped them off! We have to turn back!"

The ship turned to find that the base's defense shield was blocking them in. They had no choice but to fight.

Ratchet quickly said, "Slim, take the turret! Jak, mount the torpedo launchers and keep them steady!"

"Got it!"

"Got it!"

Ratchet took the mine launcher and sent 3 mines flying forward. His hand hovered over the activate button. He simply waited.

Then a fleet of ships came straight for them. They unleashed a long volley of lasers that were all blocked by the fully powered shields Ratchet had just turned on. Ratchet swerved through the mines he had placed and looked back. The fleet did what Ratchet intended them to do and flew straight through the mines. He slammed the activate button.

Crackling electricity erupted from the mines and cut right through all the fleet and sent them into the legions of infinite space.

Slim grinned. "You sure live up to your reputation, Ratchet."

"Yes, indeed I do."

Jak yelled, "The force of those lasers knocked the systems around a bit. We need to land soon!"

Ratchet equipped the torpedoes and fired a few at the blargian supply ships that had flown out of the docking bay. He pulled off a remarkable feat.

Ratchet sped at full speed right at the supply ship and stopped at the last moment. The torpedoes he had launched flew past and blew the ship to bits. The impact sent Ratchet's ship right inside the main HQ and into the main lobby. The ship was unrepairable, but it was worth it.

Ratchet hurled out of the ship and slammed onto a blargian with his wrench. There was a gruesome CRUNCH as the blargian's cerebrum smashed against the skull and shattered. The blue freak didn't even feel any pain.

Ratchet yelled to his comrades, "WE GOT BIG COMPANY! SLIM, SNIPE THEM FROM THE LEDGE UP THERE! JAK, COME WITH ME!"

Jak was clearing loving this battle already. He equipped the Heavy Lancer he nicked out of Ratchet's storage glove, along with a few other older ones.

Slim yelled down at them, "OK lads, here they come!" He expertly flicked the flux rifle to his shoulder and fired 7 times in a row. They all hit their mark and sent the targets flying.

Ratchet pulled out thr rift ripper and fired one in the middle of the group of blargians. They struggled but none survived. One of them succeeded in grabbing Ratchet's leg.

Ratchet jumped away and grabbed hold of his own ship. The weapon was a full upgrade, so it mercilessly kept going. Then Ratchet slammed his feet into the ground and activated the gravity boots.

The black hole died down into nothingness but the group didn't stop for breath. They ran forward brandishing their weapons. Slim stayed back with the flux rifle.

The next group was twice as big. But Ratchet and Jak read each other's minds at this point. They both swapped into their light forms and sprouted their wings. They flew right above the blargians and rained down hell from above. The blargians had no place to go. They had no chance and they were cut down. Something whacked them both hard.

They fell to the floor but jumped straight back up and light shined on them, healing their wounds. They clapped together, making the time effects longer.

They turned around to see Quark, holding his blaster. He had an evil look on his face and he seemed much more merciless, even if he did have green latex.

Ratchet just stared in anger and raised his claws. He had switched to his dark form. It seemed the eco plate stopped him at the last moment and he turned back to normal to give a measly punch.

In very slow motion, Quark seemed to start floating backwards, his face starting to twist in pain. The gun moved out of his hands and started to float slow as a feather to the ground.

Then the time effect stopped. Quark flew to the ground and the gun dropped. It all looked very weird.

Quark picked up his gun and scrambled up again. "HA! I've finally got you Ratchet! AND I HAVE...er...right...I see..." He had just realized He had a RY3NO, an Ultra Heavy Lancer and a V8 Splitter Rifle pointing at his head.

Ratchet stared him in the eye. "WHERE. IS. CLANK."

Quark winced to see dark electricity. Ratchet did this to intimidate him.

"Alright. He's in the next room."

"Thank you." And with that, Ratchet equipped his wrench, swung down low to knock Quark off his feet, and slammed on his head. He wouldn't get up for a while.

Ratchet opened the next room to find Clank bouncing a ball on the wall.

"CLANK!"

"Ratchet, you're alive!"

"No, I meant you are throwing a GRENADE MARK III at the wall."

Clank quickly stopped and got on Ratchet's back.

Jak came in, Slim following suit.

Slim gave cheeky grin. "Clank, you shouldn't trust a man in green." They all laughed.

Jak stopped and listened intently. "What's that?"

Clank looked confused. "What?"

Jak fell over as an explosion shook the room. "That."

Silence...

BOOOOOOOOOOM! The whole ship was blown into pieces. Citizens on Snivelak could feel the explosion.

The pieces flew around. On one of them was the assault group. Ratchet was the first to come to. The others quickly regained consciousness.

Slim groaned. "Where are we?"

A ship flew past and the door opened, beckoning them in. They quickly ran inside.

The ship was very strange. It was very dark, and there was one small console. Jak walked up to it.

The computer beeped, "Thank you for using the emergency transport service for Bogon. Input required for destination."

Ratchet ran up to it and spoke into the microphone slowly but clearly, "Starship Phoenix, Solana."

"Input Verification Code."

"Verification Code?" A small hissing noise could be heared, and everyone could smell something strange. At that moment they all fell unconscious once more.

END OF CHAPTER

What a cliffy, eh? Review, please! Suggestions time. What do you think should happen next? Perhaps I will combine ideas. Do what you need to do, gentlemen!


	8. Where the hell are we?

I absolutely love this fic. I have always wanted to do something like this, as you are all aware by now. And now I present chapter 8! I hope you enjoy it! You know the disclaimer thing, I'd be better off trying to own the Queen, Ratchet would surely kill me if I owned him or any other things here BUT I do own my own things, OK? Anyway, time to respond!

Chaos Wielder: Cheers for staying with me. Thanks for the comments. YAY! My first proper reviewer! LOL

Padlock91613: Why aren't you reviewing these chapters? You must like this story a **bit...** come on, stay tuned, man!

Well, that's cleared up, time to read!

Chapter 8 Where the hell are we?

"Jak, pull yourself together! We haven't even looked around here yet!"

Slim and Jak were arguing about what to do.

"Slim, face it. We are in the depths of space with the same chance of rescue as Quark getting out of the wreckage from the supply ship!"

Ratchet butted in. "Before we make any conclusions, we need to split up and search the ship. There should be a central console on the ship. That will tell us where we are headed."

Clank nodded. "He's right. We need to get to the console first."

The team calmed down. Ratchet sighed. "OK, Clank, you're with me, Jak, Daxter and Slim, you go together."

Daxter complained, "But I wanna get some kills in..."

Jak showed a slight smile. "I'll let you use the blaster."

"WHOO! In your face, Clank!"

Ratchet put on his commando voice. "OK, let's move out!"

(Daxter's POV)

I quickly dashed after Jak, who had already made off. I caught up with him and he threw me the blaster (Jak fans will know what this is) but to my dismay, the force of the throw er... threw... me to the ground. I picked it up and weighed it in my orange mitts. I should be able to carry it for a while.

Just then Jak raised his peacemaker and Slim equipped the V8 Shock Cannon and both of them pointed forward their guns. Of course I didn't know what was happening. My eyesight is pretty poor.

"Jak, what ya see? Come on, there's nothing there!"

"No, Dax, there was something there. Right there. I saw it fly past."

I raised an eyebrow. "Jak, forget about it. Come on, hurry up!"

Slim, Jak and I walked forward into the unknown.

Ratchet's POV

I pulled out the Spitting Hydra and turned a corner. Clank had the anti-force pack at the ready for use.

"Hey, Clank, make sure you concentrate with that pack, OK?"

"I'll do my best." Our voices echoed along the corridor.

I turned another corner.

**Smack!** A hand hit down hard and my gun flew out of my hand. The creature turned the corner into my view.

It was horrible. It looked like a blargian but it had a Thugs-4-Less style about it. Even stranger, was the fact he had a faint energy around him too. I could sense it.

I swung my wrench with all my strength but the creature just grabbed it in mid-air and flung me over it's shoulder. I turned around and in that time Clank had down-graded the N90 to dual N60s. I was surprised he could do that, but I grabbed them anyway.

The creature then charged forward before I could make a move. It slammed me into the wall and slashed me in the stomach. Just as I saw my life flash before my eyes, the nanomites in my armor began to work. I healed just enough to punch the thing across the face. It reeled back and I had enough time to run up the wall and stand on the ceiling. I pointed both my N60s at the creature and fired.

It simply dodged and to my dismay, it flew up and it's clawed feet rammed into the ceiling beside me. I started to run and so did the thing. It eventually caught up to me and bit me. But I was ready for it.

The thing crunched my skin and reeled back, howling. Dark blue electricity ran through his teeth and ran to every other inch of his body. Then it imploded. Blue blood, still crackling with electricity, was everywhere.

I stood there on the ceiling, panting. I turned my head towards Clank. He looked at me. This was serious.

Then my radio beeped. I looked at the video screen to see Jak. He looked a bit pleased with himself.

"Ratchet, I've found the central computer. It says we are headed to a place called Orxon."

If I had any hope of getting found and rescued, it had gone. I gulped.

"Orxon?"

"Yeah, anything wrong with that?"

I tried to make him see why this was bad. "Jak, we can't breathe in that place. No one goes there at all. The place is so polluted that not 1 life form is left there."

Jak turned really serious. "Do you think we could use our eco to change our breath?"

"That could work. But what about Slim?"

"I can take care of that."

Slim had appeared on the screen. "Ratchet, I can fend for myself. This Carbonox armor allows me to breath in any conditions. Surely your suit does?"

I kicked myself. "Of course it does. Jak, you'll have to use your eco."

Jak didn't mind one bit. "That's alright; I have mastered eco endurance anyway."

Then we all heard a microphone sound. It was Drek. "So, you thought you had gotten rid of me? I'm afraid not, as you may have realized. That creature you came across? That was our own breed. We mixed the appearance of a blargian and the power of the Thugs-4-Less leader into one ultimate warrior. Of course, the one you came across was an experimental type. Now we know what to fix. Eco endurance. HAHAHA! At exactly 6pm today, that ship you are on, that is locked tight, will explode! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" At that moment they heard a doorbell. "Er... excuse me." The sound of a door being opened.

An advertiser said, "Hello! Would you like..."

"We don't give money, we don't like charities, we don't buy raffle tickets. Goodbye."BANG! The advertiser screamed and nothing more from her was heard.

Drek came back to the microphone. "Erm... 6 o clock, people!" The microphone shut down.

Everyone looked at each other. I broke the silence. "It's four. We've got 2 hours to get out. Get back to the place we were before we split up. We need a plan."

END OF CHAPTER

Whoo! I love the suspense in this one. I hope you liked this chapter. R&R please! Make sure you post your ideas to me.


	9. Touchdown at Nowhere

Hello and welcome to chapter 9 of the much loved fiction series I made up! OK, maybe not loved but someone must like it somewhere! XD Anyway, this might seem a bit rushed, chapter 8 was only a few days ago, but I don't want to keep readers waiting yonks for some more! Right, onto the chappy!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any Ratchet-related things and I don't own 'God of War''sKratos! Damn, I want to though...

Chapter 9 Touchdown at nowhere

The group met back at the place they had woken up and began to think. They only had 2 hours to get out or land somewhere. However, if they could find and disable the bomb, they would have to find their way around Orxon.

It was a strange sight. Ratchet looked like Sasha, holding his hips in deep thought. Clank had a blank face and just stood there. Slim was cocking his guns and frowned in his thoughts. Jak was switching forms when looking at the bright side and dark side. Daxter looked like he had just had 10 pints of stella. He was that weird looking.

Slim broke the eerie silence. "Guys, we need to find the explosive and see if Drek was telling the truth or just freaking us out. I think we ought to split up again. One group looks for the explosive, the other looks for the exit."

Ratchet's ears perked up at this. "Slim, you make a better captain than me!"

Slim blushed under the pale, stiff fur.

Ratchet found his common sense. "If there are cameras anywhere, they will expect us to stay in the same groups. Slim, you come with me instead. Daxter, Clank and Jak, you go together."

Daxter pouted, "But I don't want a metal brain box giving me a posh-sounding suggestion every time we turn a corner."

Ratchet simply said, "That's all safety problems cleared then. Clank can take care of you."

They split up once again. Although what they would find this time was even more unnerving...

Ratchet and Slim walked up the corridor identical to the previous and loaded the crazy contraptions in their hands called weapons.

Slim was the first to start a conversation. "I don't actually know you properly, Ratchet. What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a self-employed mechanic and I am the captain of the wimps that call themselves the galactic rangers."

Slim chuckled. "OK, but do you know what I used to do before I went to the black market? Ratchet shook his head.

"Well, I was a miner on Planet Greblin in the Bogon Galaxy. There was one lombax living there who called herself Angela. She had good relations with me. Of course, the Y.E.T.I. and the leviathans took over the wastelands, so I was out of a job. I moved to the other sector to start the market. Then an idiot who said he was 18 sucked himself into his own Suck Cannon and I moved here. Quite a story, huh?"

Ratchet stared at him. "Yeah..."

Slim grinned. "Memories of Angela, isn't it? Don't worry, you'll be fine."

Ratchet's eyes, that were already huge, turned twice as big. "How..."

Slim simply said, "You'll see..."

That was when Jak called. "Guys, I've found the exit. Nut-and-bolt-man here says that the door won't open unless every threat in the ship is removed."

Ratchet rolled his eyes. "That would be the bomb then."

Clank chirped in. "Ratchet, I have acquired a complete map of the ship's interior. You are quite close to a possible location of the explosive. Keep moving forward and look for..." The radio cut off.

Slim put a hand on a worried Ratchet's shoulder. "Don't worry, we're probably in a low signal range. Come on, Drek taught me well with explosives..."

They walked forward into a massive room that must have been twice as big as Ratchet's quarters. They walked over to a console in the middle. Slim read the blargian on the screen.

He got up. "Well, it says here that there is a high threat very close by. I don't know where, but I need some sort of scanner."

Then the console started beeping. Slim stared right at the screen.

"No...it can't be..."

Ratchet looked at him. "What's wrong?"

"The console has a timer on it. 90 seconds! What the..." Realization hit Slim.

"Ratchet, contact Jak to get that door open any way possible! NOW! Let's get outta here!" They ran out of the room and went to find Jak and the rest of the group.

When they caught up to them, they had managed to prise the door open to find an escape pod. They all jumped in. When they all looked out the window, they saw Orxon, as disgusting as ever. Ratchet took the pilot seat and fired the pod up. It shut down just as quick. Ratchet looked at the readers.

"Damn it! Drek has drained the fuel!"

They sat there and looked at each other. They had no choice. With 10 seconds left, Ratchet yelled, "Jak, focus your eco to your lungs! Slim, melt away the hinges connecting the pod to the ship but close the door first!" Everyone did their job as quick as possible.

The console, on 0, exploded. It lit up the nitroglycerin casing in the ship's material and blew the whole thing into a few atoms instantly. Underneath the explosion was the pod, falling slowly towards the polluted planet.

Inside the pod, everyone was just sitting there, awaiting the fate below. Ratchet was putting on his alternative see-through helmet with re-breather, Clank was flushing his radiator core, Daxter was twiddling his thumbs, Jak had his eyes closed and was pulsing a middle shade of blue and Slim was fixing on his helmet.

At that moment, the pod entered the polluted space of Orxon. But still, none moved. When the ship was seconds from hitting the surface, they jumped.

They all fell for about a second before they fell face down in the mud. If by mud I mean horrible, green, pulsing, poisonous liquid. No one had felt the acid from their armor, but Daxter certainly did.

"AARRGGHH! It burns! Oh my God, I need water!"

As Daxter ran around in the background in a truly comical fashion, the rest of the team got up and examined their surroundings.

Ratchet got up just in time to see a blade fly straight for his face. In what seemed like slow motion, he jumped back in a flip so perfect he would make a gymnast cry. In the air, he equipped his 'new' dual N60s and, Matrix style, fired them simultaneously and landed feet first. The attacker flew back and dropped the plasma whip he had thrown at Ratchet. He splashed into the acid and that was it.

Everyone stared at him. Jak, who was still pulsing neutral blue, asked him, "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know, but I've got a feeling that wasn't all of them."

He was right. Many of the blargians knew they would escape, as did Drek. He had sent many of his ultimate warriors to take the group down.

On cue, a group of, oh I don't know (I am the author), around, THOUSANDS OF THEM appeared from the shadows. Drek knows how to make an entrance.

The group pulled out their weapons, but Jak stumbled a bit, turned to his proper skin color and fell to the ground.

Ratchet turned. "JAK!"

He then realized that Jak couldn't concentrate if he was angry or was focused elsewhere.

The radiator core.

Ratchet pulled Clank of his back and pulled out said object. He put it in Jak's pocket. The oxygen that was given off from the radiation was absorbed by Jak's body. He got up quickly and pointed the mini-nuke at the army of masters.

All the warriors had plasma whips. It would be impossible to dodge every single slash. Ratchet had an idea.

"Slim, Jak, Daxter! Hold on to me!"

They did as he said. Ratchet jumped off the cliff-face they were directly next to and Clank activated the anti-force pack. They flew away without descending.

Everyone felt extremely light. The pack affected all of them. They flew gracefully to the other side of the crevice and broke apart. They ran for some time until they came to a large building that seemed to be some kind of space-port (the future of airports). They ran into the central lobby and found a ship behind the spectator glass. The team ran forward and jumped in to hijack it. Ratchet remained behind at the sight of the masters who had caught up on hoverboards.

Slim turned to see him. "Ratchet, come on!"

"No Slim, you go on with the rest. Tell them to wait until I'm done."

Slim was just about to protest when Ratchet gave a reassuring nod. Slim closed his mouth and turned to the ship.

Ratchet looked at all the masters, who had all equipped V...9?... weapons and loaded them. They knew he didn't have a chance. But Ratchet had hidden a secret from them. His eco. It made him faster, quicker-thinking, _stronger._

Almost in a split-second he had the N60's out and ran sideways. Fire rained downed upon him but he was too quick. He dived sideways facing the creatures and fired. The lasers flew and hit the first line hard. The second line pulled out their Shock Cannons and blasted in his direction. Many of the lasers hit Ratchet but the special nanomites in the armor prevented instant death. He was injured but it would heal in time. He pulled out a Nitro Launcher and fired a few shells. The resulting explosion knocked the layout of the warriors.

The next attacking group had various weapons. Ratchet pulled out the R.Y.3.N.O and dived backwards. The lobby's tables provided a support to slide behind cover. While he slid on the table, he let rip with the ultimate weapon in his collection. Even in this short amount of time, he had already run out of ammo. Fortunately, it had been worth it. Only a group of about 50 remained. Ratchet used his eco to turn invisible. This really caused a confusion. Slim had Ratchet's Shock Cannon but one warrior had one. Ratchet fired an eco blast from his hiding place and sent many flying. There were only warriors in the twenties left.

His eco depleted and he became visible again. The whole group saw him and walked towards him. He flipped over the warrior with the Shock Cannon, kicked his arm so the gun flipped over him to Ratchet, and fired right in the back. The creature exploded in blue slime. The rest got out their plasma whips and walked towards him slowly. Ratchet grinned but then stopped when he realized the cannon was out of ammo. He cursed his luck and drew his quantum whip.

The closest warrior jumped up to slam on top of Ratchet. Ratchet rolled sideways and whipped. The warrior fell to its knees and to the ground, it's head disintegrated.

Three warriors charged at once, whips flailing behind. Ratchet jumped up and whipped down on one, chopping him in half downwards. He landed on his feet and spun around, his whip trailing around him. The other two lay dead on the floor.

The whip suddenly disappeared. The handle just sat in Ratchet's hand. The power had gone. He pulled out the plasma sword and took a defensive position.

**In the Ship Waiting to Leave...**

Slim stared out the window in awe. "Wow. I don't know how much training Ratchet has had, but he really kicks the pants off Kratos."

Jak looked at Slim and grinned. "Why don't you get some training off him then?"

Daxter stood in the corner, trying out Ratchet's moves. He ended up falling out the window.

**Back On the Ground...**

The warriors charged at Ratchet. He ran right into the midst of masters and spun the blade. After a while, he jumped and slammed onto a warrior's head, cleaving it in two. He flung the blade around again and stabbed it right through another's stomach. He forced the blade upwards, leaving a mess. He then grabbed a warrior twice the size of him and flipped over him, blade facing downwards. Ratchet turned and saw the last warrior. It pulled out it's whip and roared. In a flash Ratchet's plasma sword was stuck in the warrior's head, poking out the other side. It was still standing up. Ratchet walked up to it and pulled the blade out.

A rocket flew straight past his head. He cartwheeled sideways in slow motion, his hand catching an N90 Hurricane on the floor. He twisted his body and fired. The lasers went straight for the hiding warrior and made the thing even more unrecognizable. Ratchet turned, grinning, but then he saw exactly what he didn't want to see.

The ship they were going to escape in was in flames. The rocket had completely destroyed it. Ratchet heard faintly, "We're alright!"

Ratchet shook in anger. He ran up to the warrior he had just killed and continuously stamped on it's face. Ratchet kept yelling censored words about how their last route of escape was gone.

Clank looked at Ratchet worryingly. "Ratchet, I could just call the phoenix."

"Yes, do that."

The strange comlink thingy that came out Clank's stomach appeared. Only black and white dots were seen.

Ratchet slammed his fist into his open palm. "Great."

He ran to the wrecked ship and found the group. They were fine, but Daxter was dizzy from his fall out of the window.

Slim looked at Ratchet in concern. "What do we do now?"

END OF CHAPTER

Whoohoo! This chapter, in my opinion, is the best and longest so far! R&R, please! Oh, and I am still open for suggestions, new characters and ideas for future chapters! Do what you do best, ladies and gentlemen!


	10. Fart Wars: Return of the SForce

Well, I'm not gonna stop working on this with all the support I'm getting! Here's Chapter 9!

**Chapter 9: Fart Wars: Return of the S-Force**

Drek sat at the camera screen viewer.

"This is getting extremely annoying! I have just witnessed my nemesis take out a whole army of my best men! sigh , It had better have been worth it to save your ass, Quark!"

Quark saw where this was going. "I'll get to my ship."

Drek grabbed him. "Not so fast. He has beaten you 3 times, and the 3rd time you went insane! Not exactly the way I want you to go again."

Drek directed the latex-clad 'warrior' to the training arena.

**Aboard the Phoenix...**

Helga was not impressed. "Come on, you lardball! You can do at least 50 meters!"

She had been training Skidd for at least 3 hours but he had not increased his stamina in any way. The training course was on level 1 out of 1,000 but he couldn't even manage that.

"But Dudette, I'm like, tired, and stuff."

"That's because you have tried this course over 50 times, buffoon!"

Skidd fired back with, "That's because you forced me through pain you bitch!"

That was the wrong thing to say. In a flash Skidd was so rolled up he could have been on a green pitch and kicked into a net.

"Who's the cocky one now, Rilgarian!"

This is what happened to lead to this:

Sasha walked up to the ranger at the central computer. "Any luck?"

"Yes, sir. We have tracked an escape pod from the ship to Orxon."

Sasha's ears perked up, but went down again. "Orxon? The planet so polluted I would need the capacity of 20 gas masks without a re-breather?"

"Erm...yes, sir."

Sasha got really annoyed at that last word. "Call me ma'am."

"Yes, sir."

**CRACK!**

They had begun training for moving in for the kill.

In another section of the phoenix, Sasha was training the galactic rangers to be brave, strong, intelligent soldiers. Of course, a while back, Clank had calculated the chances of that happening were 0.13275395. And that is low.

They had been taken to a cinema to watch a very scary war movie to up their courage and bravery. The movie was 2 hours long. It ended 1 hour 59 minutes early. Screaming was heard.

The galactic rangers were instead taken to the VR booth. They would not get destroyed for real if they were stupid enough to run in little circles crying for mummy.

As soon as they saw the enemies they all screamed and ran in little circles, just as predicted.

H-26 was the first to get frazzled. His pieces hit the floor and disappeared. He had been transported back to the real world.

J-19 had forgotten how to fire his arm/gun and pointed the useless metal at the hostiles. He got hit right in the face by a walloper and flew back into the coded walls of the VR arena and evaporated. H-22 looked at his comrades. Well, what was left of them. Nothing whatsoever. He was well chuffed to be the captain, but no so when people relied on him to do stuff.

They all failed miserably. They all went to Sasha's quarters to deliver the news. Sasha walked over to H-22 and pulled a wire out.

"Now go do it again. I don't know if it will work, but go on."

This is what surprisingly ensued:

The training robots appeared. They were on the highest level of difficulty to challenge them and put their metal brains to work.

H-22 suddenly got a jolt of courage in his circuits. His cowardice boards had been disabled. He run up behind all the other rangers and grabbed their circuits.

H-26 was confused. "Sir, are you sure that's a good ideEEEEAAAAGGGHHH!"

The same happened to the rest of the team and they snapped into formation.

H-22 took frontline. "OK, ladies, let's go!"

They all ran sideways in 2 groups (1 left, 1 right) in sequence with each other. They fired their guns after one another, preventing the robots a chance to strike back. In a few minutes the robotic army was piled up in ashes. The rangers did a virtual sneer and stamped on the remains.

In the VR watching bay, Sasha was bouncing in glee. These useless rangers are becoming an army!

The GP then walked in. "Hi, dear. I just want to say, about you and Ratchet..."

Sasha slammed the door in his face and continued viewing.

"I was just gonna say I'm OK with it!"

Sasha slowly opened the door. "You mean it?"

Her father smiled at her. "Of course. I was just not sure whether he could protect you. Now I see he's a hardened warrior. You deserve him."

The young Cezer ran up to his father and hugged him tightly. Tears were streaming from her eyes. "Thank you."

**Back at the Gym...**

Skidd yelled. He was the only unfit one in the group, and Helga was forcefully stretching his legs (you know, like that personal log from Quark in UYA).

"Helga, please! You've pulled my tendons 4 times already and we haven't got any nanotech left!"

"NO! You must be in tip-top shape for the big battle!"

"Oh, of course...big battle...right...ARGH!"

**On Drek's Ship...**

Quark had undergone very vigorous training. He was taken to the observation bay for Drek to witness the improvements himself.

And it was impressive. And definitely improved. In less than 5 minutes he had taken down 3 chain-blade clones and a B2 brawler clone.

Drek was very impressed. "I see you have witnessed our new plan yourself."

Quark raised an eyebrow.

" sigh You have been fighting mere cadets of the grand army we are building. The so called 'phoenix' will be caught off guard. And that means...," he held up a microphone, "...remember the job you were trying for last time?"

Quark clapped his hands together. "Ooh, I could be a Gadgetron advertiser at last!"

"NO, shit-for-brains! You are going to be the spokesman for my new..."

"Planet? Oh, goody!"

"No again. I meant my new plan. You are going to explain it to all the blarg. We will commence plan as soon as the Q-force are back together."

**On the phoenix at the meeting room..**

Sasha folded her arms. "What is it, Helga?"

"Vel, you see, Quark is no longer on our side..."

Sasha slowly nodded. "Uh-huh..."

"...and we still go by the same name in honor of Quark..."

"Right..."

"So I think we need a new name."

Sasha stared blankly at her. A new name? Like what? S-force? S for Sasha? Hmph!

Helga nodded. "Yeah, that vun is good."

Sasha was now really confused. She must have thought out loud.

**Down on Orxon...**

A small lizard crawled along the poisonous ground. It didn't mind. At least it had protective skin. It was very quiet around here. It didn't seem right. It crawled into the open space and lay down.

**Crunch! **There was Ratchet, blood-covered wrench in hand.

"FOOD!"

Daxter ran up to the lizard and grabbed it's arm. He was about to take a bite when...

**FZZZT! **Daxter was in an ice block, Liquid Nitrogen Gun in Ratchet's hand. It angered the ottsel even more to see Ratchet and Jak helping themselves to the fresh meat.

Jak purposely mocked him by doing something very nasty. "OOH, isn't this lizard absolutely delicious, Ratchet?"

Ratchet joined in. "Yes, it really is tasty. The juiciness when you bite into the warm, soft... HA!"

The ice block had nearly melted. Daxter must be really pissed off.

They carried on. "Jak, don't you love the legs? They have a slight tenderness to them. It makes it taste better than any meal I've ever had on the phoenix..."

The ice burst. "GIMME SOME!"

They laughed when they saw that the top half of his body was the only part that had melted. His legs were frozen.

Ratchet called Slim over. "Hey, want some?"

"No thanks, I'm vegetarian." His voice was muffled. The rest of the group walked over to him and chuckled to see Slim munching on the plants.

Slim informed them, "My system is very protective. I'll be okay from any pollution of infection."

Clank came around and pulled out his radiator core. "Jak, you will need this."

"Why?"

"Because the radiation only lasts for a short while. I will have to keep supplying you with radiation cores if you want to breathe."

Jak showed a very concerned face at this. "Don't go anywhere, then."

Clank turned to Ratchet. "By the way, I tried contact with the phoenix. No dice."

They all looked at each other. This would get serious if they weren't rescued soon.

Ratchet showed a very confused face. "How come you can use slang like that when you are a robot?"

**Back at the phoenix...**

Sasha called everybody together. "You're doing great! Ratchet will be waiting for us in Orxon. We had best get a move on. We are now called the S-Force. Quark has changed sides. _Again._"

Skidd ran to the _Solar Ship Radical, _Skrunch ran to Sasha's _Galactic Battler_ and Helga ran to the _Thin Body in Thin Time_ ship. Sasha ran to her own ship and fired it up in seconds. She pressed the follow button on the Galactic Ranger's Command Keyboard. The rangers didn't hesitate and fired up the assault ship. They had been given a new slick black paint job as well.

The team blasted off into the unknown dangers of the Solana backpocket...

**Back on the green slime ball known as Orxon...**

The group then heard a whooshing noise. They all turned and saw 3 ships coming towards them.

Ratchet looked closely and brightened up as suddenly as they had heard them. "SASHA!"

The ship landed and he ran up and enveloped Sasha in such a passionate kiss that Jack and Rose from Titanic would get a run for their money. When they broke apart Sasha realized she couldn't breathe and put on her re-breather.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, they heard a booming voice.

"Well, well. You survived. Not surprising in the least. Just a piece of advice. GIVE UP. You cannot stop me this time. You can't even find the source of my voice. You won't be able to find me. Even if you did, you would have to suffer the consequences. Ratchet fought in an arena in the Bogon Galaxy a while back I believe? Well, you may know what I mean by unstoppable..."

Then they all heard a sliding noise. "DAMN IT!" The microphone must have fallen and hit Drek hard, because the static was enormous. "ARGH! Stupid plastic, crap builders..." They heard mumbling. "Oh, to hell with this!" The microphone stopped altogether.

Sasha looked back at the rangers. "Did you trace that?"

"Yes, ma'am. The ship is locked on. Hop in and we're on our way."

That was when Ratchet noticed the rangers' difference. "Whoa..."

Sasha grinned. "Yes, we have disabled their cowardice features. Now they are like an army!"

One blackened ranger asked, "What's cowardice?"

Sasha looked at Ratchet. "See what I mean?"

They all got in the ship and ate some proper food. When they were light-years out they realized they had forgotten Daxter. He was still half frozen, stuck in a pit of poisonous muck.

Then they really blasted off, after Drek's confidence-reducing speech.

Sasha stared at Ratchet. "Bogon arena?"

"Aw, come on! It was a while back, and I needed the money! OH..." He realized something.

"Ratchet. What's wrong?"

He looked up slowly. "I know Drek's plan. He's going to use B2-Brawlers and Chain-Blade clones to form an army."

Slim brought his head up slowly. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me..."

Ratchet then showed a concerned face. "Sasha, are you alright? You look...different..."

She certainly did. Ratchet looked from her to Jak meditating. "No. No,NO,NO!"

Sasha had turned a shade of blue as well.

END OF CHAPTER

OK, now that was a good chapter, I gotta say. The humor was alright, I suppose. I love the cliffy at the end. Where will Ratchet and Sasha's relationship lead after this chain of events? Find out next chappy!

Oh, and I'm planning on doing 2 endings. A good one, which will be more chapters first, and a bad ending, that will see the group fail and perish in a very emotional chapter. What do you guys think of that? Please R&R and give ideas and suggestions!


	11. Changes at the Front

Well, here it is. Unveiling chapter 11! Please enjoy and R&R. Keep suggestions coming, I don't want to feel alone in this! Even if you don't normally review, please do!

**Disclaimer:** I do not, I repeat, DO NOT, own anything in this fic except my own stuff. It belongs to Insomniac Games and Sony.

Chapter 11: Changes at the Front

Sasha looked at herself. The blue was coursing through her whole body, just like what had happened to Ratchet. Although this time, she wasn't in any pain whatsoever. The eco seemed to make her shine in a heavenly light. That was when Sasha fainted.

When she came to, she was still in the sitting position she was in before, but Ratchet was sitting next to her, waiting for her to wake up. He had to stay calm. He knew she would survive this, but to wake her up early was dangerous.

Ratchet saw she was awake. "Are you alright?"

"Ugh...I guess..."

Skidd stared at her. "Dude, I thought bringing Helga was weird..."

Sasha rolled her eyes. When she looked up, she saw a small lighting rig. She wished she could pick it up and let it drop on Skidd. That would make her feel better.

The wires connecting the rig frazzled and broke. The rig fell down and hit Skidd's left shoulder. It hit the sleeper spot (the part spies use to knock people out) and he fell asleep instantly.

Ratchet looked from Skidd, to the rig, to Sasha. "What the f..."

Big Al walked in. "I have done some calculations and I think I made have developed a theory."

Ratchet raised an eyebrow. "In the 10 seconds it just happened?"

"Huh? I just wanted to see how long it would take to get to Galaxy Burger..."

Sasha looked at Al worriedly. "I just wished I could pick up that rig and knock out Skidd to shut him up and it happened!"

Al thought for a bit. "Hmm...have you two," he pointed at Ratchet and Sasha, "had any um...you know..."

Sasha was outraged. "HOW DARE you ask a question like that to the captain of the Starship Phoenix!"

Al backed off, both hands raised. "Hey, this is important to find out what's going on!"

Sasha cooled down a bit. "Alright...yes, we have had gender intercourse."

"That explains it. When doing that, Ratchet must have passed his powers on through to you. I think a female may change the power a bit, though."

Sasha liked the idea of powers exclusive to her, but at the same time, it worried her. "OK, so what can I do?"

Al raised an eyebrow. "How do I know? You haven't tested your new power out yet!"

Jak had been thinking through all this. "Guys, I think Sasha has telekinesis."

Sasha stared at him. "You gotta be kidding me..." She tried to suppress a giggle and failed.

Jak was serious. "Maybe your powers could be linked to that one. Try saying something to me in your mind. Focus now..."

Sasha concentrated on Jak and thought 'hello, pleased to meet you'.

Jak shook his head. "Nope. Try again. But this time, visualize your mouth moving and the sound coming out."

Sasha focused and did just that. She imagined her opening her mouth and saying that phrase. The words seemed to hang for a moment in her head.

Jak was surprised. "Pleased to meet you, too."

Al looked at Sasha. "You are telepathic, too."

This made Sasha excited, but she wondered what her dad would think when she is floating coffee across the room.

Slim thought for a moment. "Maybe it also affects your natural abilities. Punch me."

Sasha's eyes went wide. "No way."

"Look, I am well hard, OK? Just try..."

Sasha sighed and focused. She let her fist go back, closed her eyes, and threw forward.

Her fist connected to Slim's stomach. His muscles convulsed and he flew across the room. He slammed into the back of the pilot seat and came up wheezing.

"Nice moves...ugh..."

Ratchet was just as surprised as Sasha was. "Maybe you can come to battle with us. There is a VR training room just to your left. Practice your new power there."

Sasha nodded and walked to the VR training deck. This wasn't the _Starship Phoenix_, so it wasn't as advanced, but it was good enough.

Sasha spawned in the arena. She saw a single robot sitting there, Walloper in hand. It got up and ran towards her. Sasha knew what she had to do.

The robot rose into the air. It would have been screaming if it had a mouth. It flew through the air and frazzled when it hit the arena limits.

Sasha pulled out her trusty N60 Storm and waited. More of them appeared. _A lot_ more of them. Sasha pulled off a most impressive technique.

She lifted one robot off it's roller ball and hovered it in front of her. She then fired from behind there, the robot acting as cover.

Of course, the others are worried of hitting their buddy, so they hesitated. That was when they were vaporised.

Sasha threw the robot cover into the wall and awaited more.

Something strange happened. Robots didn't appear, but virtual Captain Quarks appeared! This made Sasha laugh, but she had to concentrate.

She put away her weapons and put her hands into a defensive position, reminiscent of Karate. The Quarks smirked and moved in for the 'kill'.

It was Sasha's turn to smirk. She blocked the high strike coming towards her and kicked the attacker hard in the stomach. He flew back and hit another one. They both flew back and hit the wall and frazzled.

Another Quark ran towards Sasha, both hands raised. She moved her hands inwards, separated the hands and pulled off a perfect uppercut. The surprised Quark went straight upwards and when it fell it landed headfirst on top of another. There was a gruesome **crunch **and they both stopped moving.

Another Quark had crept up behind her and now unleashed a powerful back kick. Sasha went straight forward and fell face-first.

She got up and this time she was well pissed off. She held the Quark there with telekinesis and continuously punched him in the stomach. Since he couldn't fly backwards, the pain was ten times as great. On the last punch Sasha let go. The Quark hit the wall and disappeared.

Another did a foot sweep and knocked Sasha right off her feet. The Quark was about to strike down when...

**ZAP!** It's fist hit an invisible barrier. When it did so, the whole arm burnt up, followed by the rest of the body. It lay in ashes on the floor.

Sasha stared at the 'body'. What happened?

"I know what you are thinking."

Sasha turned around. She saw Jak standing there. "That was an eco barrier. I can't do those myself actually. You probably thought you wanted to keep back it's fist. That would have created the barrier."

"But...you have a shield..."

Jak shook his head. "That does not keep back things. It only makes it hurt when people come close. Gunshots are blocked, but nothing else."

Jak disappeared. Sasha was still thinking when another Quark appeared. Sasha smirked and got into a defensive position.

The Quark pulled out it's own gun and fired at her. She thought of a barrier blocking the gunshots. The bullets hit nothingness and allowed Sasha to pull out a gun of her own. She fired an N60 round at the Quark's chest. Then Sasha noticed something unusual.

_There was blood coming from the Quark! And it had nanotech, unlike any of the others!_

Sasha was very scared at this point and didn't realize the tranquilizer dart flying towards her chest. It hit her hard. She gasped and looked at the Quark.

It spoke to her. "Your powers are no match for the highly-trained leaders of the GATD(A/N pronounced 'gat.')"

"What's GATD?"

"Galactic Assault Team for Drek."

Sasha passed out. At that exact moment, they both disappeared.

**Outside of the VR, by the viewing screen...**

Ratchet stared in disbelief at the screen. He yelled into the VR voice interface microphone, "Sasha! Are you there!"

Al looked at him. "I think the real Captain Quark has jacked into the VR and kidnapped Sasha!"

**Seconds Later...**

Ratchet gathered all his equipment, as did Jak and Slim.

Slim looked at Skidd. "You coming?"

"Uh...dudes, I'm in with rescuing the chick and, stuff...but uh...I'm, kinda hungry...so uh...I'm just gonna...go to Galaxy Burger...and, stuff."

Ratchet had a dead serious tone in his voice. "Skidd, you ARE coming." He emphasized 'are'.

"But dude..."

Ratchet pointed his wrench at Skidd's throat. "Listen, wimpy. You haven't helped anyone since you joined. Now show a bit of respect!" Ratchet was in his dark form. Suddenly it all washed away. He went back to his normal state and fell to his knees. "What's happening to me? I can't control it..."

Tears formed and began to run down Ratchet's face. He dropped all his equipment. All his hatred in Quark and Drek had disappeared. He had changed. And he still was changing. He could no longer control himself. What was happening? The only thing he was worried about now was his future. He might hurt the others.

Ratchet grabbed Al by the shoulders. "HELP ME! What's happening? Tell me!"

"Ratchet, relax! I'll give you a medical scan and check for any changes."

**On Drek's Flagship...**

Sasha woke up. She was about to scream when she noticed she had duck tape around her mouth. She was bound to a chair by charged wire, meaning she couldn't break out.

A shadowed figure came through the door of the room and stood in front of her. "We have noticed your team have developed more power since we last encountered you. Now we are going to make sure this rivalry ends."

The figure punched Sasha across the face with such strength. The chair went sideways and fell over. Sasha lay there crying in grief and pain.

The figure laughed manically. "I guess you could be of good use. Ha ha ha ha!"

It then grabbed the charged wires and broke them with it's bare hands. Sasha got up and lifted the figure into the air with telekineses. It was hopeless. He simply pulled out a little tool and turned it on. Sasha lost all concentration. She dropped him and he kicked her in the stomach. She fell wheezing. She would never get out. She lay there on the floor and cried loudly.

**In the Medical Room of the Ranger Dropship...**

Al walked up to Ratchet clutching the results. "Ratchet, I'm sorry."

Ratchet stared at him. "What? What's wrong?"

Al's eyes started to form tears of sorrow. "Ratchet, the eco is taking over your whole body. You are not as resistant as Jak."

"Huh? What's going to happen?"

More tears began to form. "Ratchet...you...in a few days...you...the eco..it's...it's going to kill you."

END OF CHAPTER

Sorry this chapter is all sadness. I just wanted to point out how sad and upsetting a situation like this in real-life would be. I really like the way the story is developing. Does anyone think I should put the two endings in next? Or put more length to it? R&R please! Also, the bad ending will see a lot of character deaths. Mainly good side. Brace yourself for that in future. Do what you do please!


	12. The Advance

Right. I guess it's time to reply to reviews then, huh? OK, let's go:

**Chaos Wielder: **Thank you so much for staying with me throughout my story and thanks for your comments. Everything accepted!

**Padlock91613: **Even though you haven't reviewed for a while, thanks for reading! Be sure to review and tell me what you think of future chapters!

**Miss Trippy: **You read 10 chapters in one sitting! That's a bit much, but thanks anyways. Cheers for your comments.

**Garmein: **Like I said in the mail, I had to use notepad on chapter 1, so please ignore grammar and spelling mistakes in there. And for the future chapters I don't have time to check. I am in comp you know! I misunderstood bunched writing warnings too, but that has all been fixed! Thanks for the criticism though, I appreciate it. You obviously don't like this story then, do you?

**Colonel Monkey (also known as my friend Alex):** Thanks for your comments, but no criticism at all? Do you love this story that much? Not a lot of effort into reviewing my story really.

**Note to all reviewers: Criticism is accepted. Flaming is a bit much for a new writer, OK?**

Guys I haven't been on for month. I'm so sorry to readers but I was in hospital all this time. My head isn't exactly cleared, so if something has mucked up without me noticing please tell me. OK! That's sorted! Onto the next chapter!

**Slim's Offer: Chapter 12: The Advance**

Ratchet didn't say anything. He couldn't. His feelings had taken over him. He fell to his knees and sat there. Now all he could think about was what would happen to Sasha. There was no telling. Tears freely flowed from his eyes.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw Slim standing next to him. "What happened, Ratchet?." Slim shook him on the shoulder very slightly. "Come on, it's alright."

He looked up at Slim. "The eco is killing me!". He knew he was going to keep changing. Torture until death. Being shot and hit he could muster but this; this was too much.

Slim just smiled. "Look, Ratchet, it'll be OK, the eco won't..."

"But it IS killing me, Slim! I had a medical test and it's true!"

This time Slim understood. "Oh..."

Jak came over and said the wrong thing. "Hey everybody, who's died now?"(A/N This is a kind of humorous phrase people use in my school when a crowd has developed)

This made Ratchet howl and cry even more. Slim whispered in Jak's ear. When he was done Jak was completely white. "This is all my fault. You are dying because of me! DAMN IT!" He slammed his fist into the wall, causing a dent.

Ratchet stared at him. "You're right. It is your fault! ARGH!" He pounced on Jak. This took him by surprise so he fell straight back onto the floor. Ratchet was about to strike with his dark blue claws when his angry eyes opened wide and he fell onto his side. "Do you see now, everyone! I am changing!" He changed back into his regular state again.

Al was gone. He was obviously terrified of Ratchet's uncontrollable alter-ego.

Then the radar beeped. The pilot yelled, "Sir! We have a lock-on on Drek's location. What do we do sir?"

Ratchet's heart pounded. Suddenly all fear of his own life disappeared. Hatred and love mingled in his eyes. "Fly straight to it."

He looked at the rangers. "OK, boys, you ready?"

The rangers showed no fear and responded with, "We are men, Sir!"

Ratchet grinned as he saw them with their new arm mounted cannons. This one had different modes on it. Ratchet activated his storage glove and prepped himself for battle. Jak and Slim did the same. He then saw the back door open.

The pilot shouted over the noise, "You're ready to go, boys!"

They all jumped out and positioned their limbs into a star position.

Ratchet looked at J-35. "Over your fear of heights then, are you?"

They chuckled slightly. They then focused since the blarg had started firing their cannons.

The whole team then moved their limbs upwards, causing them to fall faster. The rangers had had the sense to use the boosters on their feet to move out of the way of incoming fire.

Then they all noticed that dropships were sending Blarg down above them. A firefight broke out in the air.

A blargian pulled out his blaster and opened fire on Ratchet. Ratchet saw it coming and twisted in a 360 sideways twist. In the twist he pulled out his N60s and shot the blargian square in the chest. It dropped it's gun and fell down to the cold, hard surface of the planet.

Jak switched to his light form and allowed his wings to delay his flight a bit. He pulled out the Vulcan Cannon and let loose a volley of bullets at 10 a second. The dropship he went past exploded and fell downwards. It was then that Jak realized the ship was falling in Skidd's direction.

Skidd was busy screaming and looking downwards when he saw a tiny shadow behind his shadow on the ground. He looked up too late. He plunged to the planet's surface.

Miraculously Jak had slowed down time and swept Skidd from under the ship. He placed Skidd on solid earth.

Ratchet and the rangers were still in the air. They had around 2 miles of falling left. Blargians still came but the enhanced rangers cut through them. They all landed when the real fight broke out. A massive army of Blarg were guarding the base.

Ratchet dived forwards and slid over a rock into cover, the rest finding cover as well.

Skidd then realized something. Ratchet was right. He hadn't helped at all. He was going to make the team proud.

Skidd ran for Ratchet's cover but his over-confidence was his downfall. He got hit in the stomach and landed behind an Ultra-Shield wheezing.

Ratchet turned. "SKIDD!"

He ran over to the injured Rilgarian. "He's hurt bad! Medic!"

It was at that moment the battle turned. The blargians called on their army of masters and all the team were stuck behind cover without a chance to shoot. Ratchet couldn't take it any longer. He pulled out the second N60 and ran out of cover gripping his trusty dual weapons.

All of the enemies guns and swords aimed for him. Ratchet flipped sideways and in the air he clapped his hands. The battle slowed to a standstill. Ratchet sent a laser going to each and every one of the blarg and readied an Ultra-Shield in front of him.

When time came back, the unbelievable happened. The masters ran in sonic speeds and deflected the lasers back! The Ultra-Shield was the only thing that saved Ratchet's life. Although he still got hit. He fell over and lay there gasping for air.

The army marched towards Ratchet's body, weapons at the ready. That was when the most unlikely thing happened.

"I'M GONNA KICK YOUR BUTT and stuff."

Skidd had taken Ratchet's storage glove and no one had noticed he had pulled out the Rynocirator.

There was a flash and the towering army were in a pile of ashes after one pull of the trigger.

Everyone turned to Skidd, who was still pointing the gun at the ashes. For the first time, he had become angry with the enemy. For the first time, _he wanted revenge._

Ratchet stared at him. "Jesus, did I influence you that much? Better do a lot more of that. But seriously, you saved my life. I owe you one."

Skidd grinned. "Hey dude, I actually helped. I'm quite chuffed, man."

Everyone chuckled. They then turned and walked into the base.

Sorry, but the pain is coming again. I'll continue this chapter when I'm better.


	13. The Advance: Part 2

Well, well, well, I'm better at last! After almost all my body broken and a complete coma I am back to normal! WHOO! Now to continue chapter 12!

**Chapter 12: The Advance Part 2**

"This is it?" Ratchet asked himself.

The base was actually tiny. A single corridor with a few rooms on each side. At least that's what they thought.

Skidd was the first to run forward. He was so cowardly he would rather see it first and be able to run rather than be caught later. He walked into the room at the end. He fell downwards.

"SKIDD!!!" Jak shouted. He ran into the room and fell himself. The rest looked flabbergasted but at that moment Jak shouted, "it's OK! Come and see! HAHA!"

They came over and saw something strange. It was a huge bottomless pit but with one difference. Skidd and Jak were _floating._

"Wha..." Ratchet was absolutely baffled.

Jak grinned. "I think I figured out what's going on with this pit. There are loads of floors down below us in the pit. We just have to fly down there."

Daxter peered down into the pit. "But how are you supposed to get down there you maniac?"

"Because the only thing stopping you from falling is your free will. You wana drop 50 feet? Then you will. Wana rise a metre? Go ahead. It's simple!." Jak fell down and out of sight and rose back up again to prove it.

Everyone jumped in the pit to explore the floors below. Instead they found it too much fun and started playing games in the force-less pit. Eventually they stopped and began searching the basement floors. Down at the bottom floor they found a massive super computer.

Skidd stared at it. "Pretty lights...but dude, do you know to work this thing?"

Clank grinned his little robot grin. "Fortunately, I upgraded my systems on the phoenix a few days ago. I'm just high enough to re-program the system."

Clank walked over to the computer and locked his arm into one of the USB ports. Data began flowing between him and the computer. Suddenly purple electricity burst out of the computer and hit Clank. But Clank wasn't the victim. It shot out of him and went straight for Ratchet. It hit him so hard he flew backwards and smashed right through the wall and down into the pit. He wasn't awake, so he had no will to float. However the newly-found power from the eco in the computer stopped his fall. He floated back up and was placed next to them. He woke with a start.

"What the hell?"

Ratchet suddenly turned a strange colour. Not purple, not blue, but something in between blue and green, like an aqua sort of colour. He turned to Jak and said, "you changed me by your very presence, Jak. I can't forgive you." He ran toward Jak and stabbed him in the stomach with his claws. Blood began to trickle down Jak's front. He groaned in pain and fell to the floor. Ratchet turned back to normal and stood there for a second, in some sort of trance. Then out of nowhere he ran to Jak and yelled, "What happened?!?!?!"

Skidd stared at him. "You just stabbed him dude, and I don't think he looks too good..."

"WHAT?!" Ratchet put his hand over the wound and a tear trickled down his face once more. "I'm so sorry, but what on earth happened? That didn't feel the same."

Then Jak's wound began to heal. Instantly it started sealing up and the blood began to flow _upwards into the wound._ Jak got up. He could only say, "wha?"

Jak fainted. Ratchet looked at himself. He began pulsing aqua once more. The extra burst of power hadn't done anything damaging, it had helped him. He now had a healing touch.

Jak woke up and laughed. "Looks like a medical career for you, mate."

They all laughed. The rangers even had a sense of humour.

Clank didn't seem amused at all. "This increased Ratchet's lust for blood in his dark eco form. I think his life has shortened greatly due to this."

Jak rolled his eyes. "Thanks, captain obvious! Although his life is shorter, I think he should enjoy it to the fullest."

Ratchet smiled weakly. "I guess..."

Suddenly an explosion engulfed the room.

**End of chapter 12**

Heh, I myself quite like this chapter. I wish I had a healing touch for reasons you know! Well, keep those reviews coming in! So sorry for the delay, but I can't help having my brain switched off and my neck nearly snapped...


	14. Alteration

Sorry about delays, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to work on this in segments. When I went back to school they threw a pile of papers from missed work in my face :(. Well now I present some reviewer replies!

**All reviewers: **Thanks for comments!

He he, sorry I can't be bothered to reply to individual reviewers and readers. Too much going on for that! Well now I give you Chapter 13!

**Slim's Offer: Chapter 13: Alteration **

The fire from the explosion obliterated everything in the room except the bare floor and walls. The only thing shielding the adventurers was Ratchet's eco shield, aided by Jak.

Ratchet brought down the shield to see what was going on. Drek stood there, surrounded by masters and soldiers.

"You thought it would be easy, didn't you? Well, I'm afraid it's not as simple, as jack in, kill me, jack out. I will bring out the true fighters in you. At least, what will be left of you. Destroy them."

Drek's hologram disappeared. The masters began to march.

Ratchet transformed into his light form. He took off and tried raining fire down on them. They simply brought up holo-shields. Jak tried firing dark eco blasts. They were repelled by the masters' weapons. Everyone opened fire. All their attempts were foiled. The masters didn't even need to open fire. They just walked towards the group.

They were circling the group now. They moved inwards wielding their plasma swords. Jak pulled out his supernova and launched a missile at them. It missed and blew a hole in the wall. Seeing this as their only chance, Ratchet slowed down time and dragged everyone out of the hole. It led into another 'magic' pit. Ratchet brought time back to normal and turned to the confused masters, holding two plasma swords of his own.

He called to the rest, "Get to another floor and wait! Jak, get out the plasma whip I gave you!"

Everyone shouted "Got it!"

The masters turned and flew out to the pit with them. Everyone in the group except Ratchet and Jak flew up to another floor. A quarter followed them.

Ratchet muttered, "You bastards..."

He crossed his swords and awaited their move. He knew now that the eco burst not only allowed healing, but increased instinct and agility.

The masters grinned and advanced on Ratchet. Jak suddenly turned aqua too. During the healing process, something had happened to him too.

Jak hung back and tried to get used to what was happening. "Hold 'em off for a bit, Ratchet!"

Ratchet nodded and poised himself in a fighting position, imagining a platform holding him up underneath him.

5 masters charged forward through the air. Ratchet pushed his swords forward toward 2 necks. They were blocked and Ratchet performed a flawless back flip and thrust his swords underneath him. They went straight into a master's head. Another slashed upward toward Ratchet. He imagined himself going upwards 4 feet. He did so, avoiding the attack and charged his sword diagonally downwards. It sliced the master's head in half.

Another group came straight for Ratchet. Ratchet sunk 10 meters and twirled upwards spinning his swords around. A few blocked but most were completely chopped to bits. Ratchet then turned downwards and delivered a rainstorm with his dual N60s on the disorientated masters. Head shots were quick and easy.

As a further 30 or so flew towards him, he crossed his swords forward with all his strength. It cut through about 5 of them. He then threw one of the swords into a master's chest. It went straight through and hit another in the eye. Ratchet imagined himself flying over to the sword and did so. He pulled it out of the master's eye. He turned around and waited.

They went towards him carefully, acknowledging his ability. They surrounded him at different heights. Ratchet began to spin, firing his N60s. One got hit in the foot and another in the leg. The rest dodged the fire completely. Ratchet was struggling. They were about to strike when...

**ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAP!** A massive blast of energy surged through the entire group. Jak was back in action. Ratchet tossed a sword to Jak. They both took defensive stance.

The masters now knew that two of equal quality were now facing them. They took out their guns and gave them a simple look.

Jak faltered. "Shit."

The masters opened fire. Ratchet slowed down time and flew hundreds of feet upwards dragging Jak with him. He planted a supernova missile directly in contact with the captain's head.

The missile exploded as time came to. All the surrounding masters were blown to bits. Ratchet knew their avoiding capabilities, and so had made the explosion instant, rather than firing at them to no use.

Jak grinned. "So your mind does have some common sense."

Suddenly Ratchet seemed confused. "Where did the plasma whip go?"

"Eh...he he, sorry mate, I dropped it."

Ratchet sighed and began to fly downwards to get it. Just then the masters returned and flew directly up into Ratchet.

"ARGH!" Ratchet got hit very hard and so lost concentration. He began to fall.

The ground was in sight and very near. Ratchet tried to imagine himself flying right back up to the top. He did so and found Jak struggling to fight off masters with his one plasma sword. Ratchet launched a dark eco blast in their direction, surging through all of them. They fell downwards. Ratchet maintained his position and kept Jak upright. Then Ratchet suddenly felt a loss of power inside himself. Jak also faltered.

The masters opened fire. Ratchet tried slowing time but something suddenly prevented it and they got hit full pelt.

Jak fell down out of sight. Ratchet didn't fall. He felt peaceful, at rest, blissful. He turned and looked at the masters. He grinned and fell unconscious. One of the masters caught him and took him away.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Ratchet's POV

I woke up to find myself strapped to a chair. It was a special sort of wire, a charged one, I guess. Everything was dark. I heard a muffled groan. It sounded very familiar.

"SASHA!" I shouted. I only heard a muffled scream back.

The lights turned on. They were extremely bright and hot. And they shone directly at me.

"Well, well, well, look who's here. I believe we've met." The voice of that filth Quark.

"You're still alive, I see", I said under my breath.

"I'm afraid I cant say the same for your friends. They are in one of our...er...special...chambers, awaiting execution under my command."

My hands turned into claws and didn't turn back. The rest of my body remained purple, fueled by my anger.

Quark uttered an eerie chuckle that didn't sound like him at all. "I've had extensive training about combat and torture since we last met. So now I will put them into practice."

I heard a knife being unsheathed. I waited and waited for the strike. Nothing happened. The lights dimmed allowing me to see. I saw Quark brandishing a knife and grinning at Sasha. Dark blue electricity surged everywhere.

Quark smiled in satisfaction. "Your anger will be useless here, my furry friend. This knife is of excellent quality. Your little girlfriend will know soon enough."

He grabbed Sasha's hand and put the knife over one of the fingers. "See what I'm getting at?"

All my anger disappeared. It turned to despair and fear for Sasha. I couldn't stand watching her like this. She was trying to scream and wriggle free, but no use.

Quark's knife ran sickly over Sasha's fingers. She was under the most pressure you can imagine. I began to start fuming. I could not stand her in this much terror. She might not be in pain, but she certainly is on the inside.

I felt my wrists burning. I looked up and into Quark's eyes and injected a hatred so deep nothing could ever penetrate it again. Quark faltered and took a step back.

My chains started to strain. I screamed in fury and the chains snapped.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

He he, I gotta do some more schoolwork, but I think this is a nice place to end part 1. Keep reviews pouring in, even the shy readers, I need to hear from you!


	15. I'm Back!

Well, dudes, I've seen sense and I am back to fanfiction! I am still working on my own original trilogy of books (look out for the Corruption Trilogy over the next few years) but I think I should finish off what I started here. It might be slower than before, but it's something eh? ;). To any readers: thanks for keeping up to date! I hope you enjoy any further chapters!


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